Snow Equipment Owning/Operating Snow Removal w/FEL

[tc35dforme]

Don't discount the idea of mounting a 7' Fisher or Diamond plow in the bucket. If you're lucky, you can get a plow without the truck frame for a few hundred bucks. Weld up a bracket to attach to the loader bucket and you'll never say snowblower again !!

The only issue is not trying to muscle the snowbanks too much. I hear you can f' up your loader arms and mounts if you get too aggressive. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[Thomas]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Don't discount the idea of mounting a 7' Fisher or Diamond plow in the bucket. If you're lucky, you can get a plow without the truck frame for a few hundred bucks. Weld up a bracket to attach to the loader bucket and you'll never say snowblower again !!
)</font>

tc35dforme..do you have any pics to share w/your plow setup?

 

[BRL]

Thomas beat me to it. You can put a snow plow on the front of the bucket with a little. You can buy an old used beat up truck plow & set that up. You don't need the hydro controls, you just need something that will plow the snow away, instead of loading it into your bucket. If that is not an option than I would try for the rear blade as mentioned, as that will plow the snow instead of "loading" the snow.

That said, if you just use what you have, you can do it as some have said, you just won't be as efficient as a machine with a snowplow. It just takes a little practice & patience, and since it is a FEL and not a snowplow, the end results will certainly not be perfect. But it can be done for sure.

 

[Thomas]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Here's a somewhat related question. What do you do maintenance wise after using your FEL in snow? Do you need to spray down the exposed shiny metal on the hydraulic cylinders with WD40 or ?? Any and all advice is greatly appreciated! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Have a good one,
Dave )</font>

All I do extend the cylinders than take a dry rag and wipe the snow etc..from the cylinders,for I don't want any ice frozen to the cylinders which may rip the packing next cold use.

32F..Stars are shining. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[PineRidge]

Jibber my advice is if you own a snowblower then by all means use it. It takes some initial adjusting but once that is done you won't bother the gravel. I adjust the skid shoes all the way down and slightly tilt the snowblower back using the top link to get it set correctly. Once you have blown snow a couple of times you will have built up a hard packed or frozen base because of the high adjustment on the shoes. Once that happens it much easier going as the stone is now frozen under the hard pack. My drive is about 750 foot of number 57 stone and it works every year here in Ohio.

 

[thcri]

I use a FEL for plowing snow. I don't own a snowblower or a back blade. I found that if you use float and keep your bucket fairly level it will not dig out your gravel. The bad thing with the bucket is you will get over fill from your bucket and you end up going over it a few times. The longer the driveway the more you will have to go over it. Try it and see how you like it. The back blade in my opinion works pretty good as you can push the snow to one side or the other. Once the snow bank gets higher then you will have to use something else cause a blade won't budge the snow over after a few plowings.

I use the FEL but it works good for me, it may not work for others. My driveway is fairly long but mostly wide.


back blades are not the expensive to try out.

murph

 

[TC18guy]

I like a combination of a back blade and the FEL. I keep the back blade pitched to throw the snow off to the side and the FEL to clean up the edges and move the piles.

With the 6"-8" snows I like to use both at the same time to keep the snow from building up between the blade and the rear wheels.

 

[Moon]

I tried using the FEL last year. Before the season was over I bought a 6' KK blade. I like it mucho better. Its nice to have both. The blade for pushing, and the bucket for moving lots of snow at a time, once I've pushed it in a pile. The KK blades are less than 200 bucks ....and I wanted to try the blade on some areas of my ATV trails. What I found is the blade works great for snow, but the box blade does a much better job on the ATV trails. ....I suppose you could even use the box blade for snow if you removed or raised the scarifiers; but i never tried that.

 

[tc35dforme]

As soon as I drag the plow out of the woods, I'll try to post a few pics.

Its nothing special. A piece of 4" X 4" x 3/8" angle with the plow mount pins welded to it. That bolts to the lower surface of the bucket at the roll crease ( near the back ). Hook up blade and go. I do have a chain that hooks up to a grab hook to carry the plow's weight when raised.

The advantage ( maybe ) is that I run one of those lightweight Snowbear or SnowWolf plows available from BJ's Costco and even Cabela's. I had it from a previous vehicle. Its nice and light, doesn't let you get too agressive, and is a snap to detach and reattach. The blade assembly only weighs about 125#. My old deere 3010 used an 8' Fisher. What a bitc# to hook-up.

 

[skent]

I have a 2200' gravel drive that has two areas prone to drifting. Snow fence helps, but if it gets bad, I can end up with 4 to 5 feet of snow. Only way out is the loader. Winter of 2001/2002 I learned that a 6 cubic foot bucket took forever! So summer of 2002 I fabricated a light duty "extension" that could be bolted on to my existing bucket. It adds 18 inches to the bottom and sides of the Kubota bucket and almost triples the capacity (in heaping snow). I also added two "runners" to keep the lip of the bucket 1 inch off the gravel. Last winter, when we got our 30" plus blizzard (Feb 2003) I actually got to try it out. Worked like a charm! Was able to take quite a 'bite' out of the 5 and 6 foot drifts. Attached is a picture (you can see the color difference between the LA bucket and my extension)